Back in World War One planes were just starting off with flight being able to attack from the air. These planes weren't able to shoot missiles or bomb certain areas but had machine guns mounted onto the passenger side. These planes couldn't fly in high altitudes.These planes were only able to drop bombs but these aren't the type of bombs that you imagine but are smaller and just and elementary type that was made in that time. Even though there were very few of thses planes being used compared to WW2 it was a rarity when they had air warfare. At first they used grenades and then resulted to using pistols and rifles but this proved to be uneffective because they were deemed too inaccurate because of they one shots and instead used machine guns in the passenger seat to shoot each other down. Theses planes were barely in their prototype phase with just being used in this war.
Into the Second World War planes were more advanced planes capable of going to higher alttitudes, had wing mounted guns, and were made more aerodynamic. These planes could go much faster than their predecessors at a speed 474 mph compared to 120 mph in WW1.These planes were used for bombing, providing air support, and to fight for superiority in the skies. The Japanese used Kamikaze aircraft. They were pilots who would sacrifice themselves to destroy an enemy warships by being a human guided missile. This was done late into the the Second World War in the Pacific Theater. At the end of the war, two planes carried and dropped atomic bombs and the US used these new nuclear weapons to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the new planes would carry bigger loads to carry this out.
Modern War Planes have significantly advanced over the years and have no need to stay so close to the ground. Compared to world war 1 planes those planes only had single engines that ran on rotary engines unlike today which uses turbine engines.In our present time these fighter jets are able to use radar to detect other planes and act accordingly to whether they are an enemy or friendly aircrafts. These planes are also able to go into a stealth mode which prevents them from being seen on a normal radar detector. They also have missles that can follow the enemy until it reaches its target or is intercepted by something else.